Wow, I haven't posted to this site in YEARS. Leave it to Left 4 Dead 2 to bring it out of me. I'm nervous, and afraid I'm going to do something wrong XD Anyway, so I'm planning on having there be one of these little one-shots, in a sense, for each campaign, but they will string together to create some NickxEllis fun times. I actually wrote this before I wrote the one for Dark Carnival, so hooopefully, will let me chapter this right away, because I think my DC fic is more successful.

I'd love it if you told me what you think! :)

Works Well With Others

"My name's Ellis, but some people call me El. I'd prefer it if you didn't, cause El sounds like a girl's name—"

And Nick was already not paying attention. Was this kid faking it? Could anybody really be that much of a hick? And seriously, wasn't it just his luck to end up with this group, where the only other person who looked like they knew how to use a gun didn't even know how to properly conjugate verbs?

He realized they were all looking expectantly at him now. Oh, right. They were doing the whole 'introduction' thing.

"Name's Nick." He said. "But don't plan on learning it, 'cuz I ain't stickin' around."

The girl raised her eyebrows at him—annoyed? Amused? He couldn't tell, partially because the elevator was starting to fill with smoke, and visibility was going to shit. There wasn't time for talking after that, because the big guy opened the doors and everything went straight to fucking hell.

"This must be a 'safe room'." The girl said, sometime later, when they're barricaded behind red steel doors, catching their breath. Nick thought he was about to hack up a lung—that much smoke inhalation couldn't be healthy, could it? Was he dying?

"How d'you know so much about all this stuff, Rochelle?" Overalls asked. Nick tuned out through most of her explanation—something about being down in Savannah to report on the Infection. Great. Whatever.

"So, anybody have any idea how the hell we're gonna get out of here?" He interrupted roughly.

"Thought you weren't sticking around." Rochelle pointed out. Nick glared at her.

"If we've all got to be going the same way anyway," He ground out, "Then I guess there's no harm in it. I don't have to stay, it makes no difference to me."

"No, I think we should stay together." The kid said earnestly. He looked at Nick. "Might be dangerous by yourself."

Nick sighed, but nodded. He was probably right.

"We need to head for the mall." Rochelle said. "There's an evac station set up there."

"The mall?" Nick stared in disbelief. "Jesus, we barely made it out of a damn hotel, there's no way we're gonna survive a trip to the fucking mall."

"Son." The Coach dude said. "I don't like your attitude."

Nick thought about telling him all the ways he didn't give a fuck what anybody thought of his attitude, but then remembered how Coach had bludgeoned one of the little laughing guys to death with a crowbar when it had jumped on him. He didn't want to give him a reason not to do that again.

"We just gotta keep movin', people." Coach said.

"Uh huh." The kid nodded. "Let's go kill us some zombies."

Or, Nick thought, I could just shoot myself in the face right now and save myself some trouble.

He wondered later, briefly, as he sprinted out of the store with a six-pack of cola, why he didn't just do that when he had the chance.

"Goddamn cola, are you kidding me?!" He yelled, and he had a shotgun, which he couldn't exactly fire one-handed, so he beat back the nearest Infected with the cola. Which, granted, was kind of bad ass, but still.

"Run, Nick, run!" Ellis yelled from behind him.

"What the fuck does it look like I'm doing?!" He shouted back, taking the stairs back to stupid Whitaker two at a time. As he ran across the path, he shook the cola viciously. "Fucking… stupid… hicks…"

He got the cola in the slot, and Whitaker blew the tanker.

"Let's go!" Coach called triumphantly. Ellis looked back expectantly at Nick, who held up a hand.

"Hang on, I just wanna see something."

He heard Whitaker open the cola, heard it fizz and bubble and splash all over him. Whitaker started swearing. Nick grinned all the way to the next safe room.

"That shit was crazy!" Ellis said, laughing, once they were safely inside. "Man, Nick, I don't know how you did it—you was running with the cola, and all those zombies were just chasin' you, but you was like the Flash or something—"

Nick shrugged, and pretended not to be just a little flattered.

Rochelle laughed weakly, and shook her head. "Let's never do that again."

Unfortunately, approximately twenty-five minutes later, they had to do it again.

"Ellis?" Nick yelled. "Ellis, where are you?!"

For a brief second, he was actually afraid. The alarm was tearing at his hearing, the horde was rushing at him, and as far as he could tell, he was alone. Ellis had been right behind him, he'd just seen him—

Then: "I'm here, I'm right here!"

Nick turned just in time to see him slash his way through a knot of Infected with a fucking katana.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't just fucking disappear on me like that!" Nick said angrily. "Shit!"

Ellis blinked at him, then gave him one of those smiles. "Nick, were you worried?"

"You realize I could've been jumped by one of those little guys while you were gone or something, right?" Nick shot back acidly. "We need to find that fucking alarm, it's giving me a headache."

They got it shut off, and had to limp the rest of the way to safety. That last attack took it out of them.

"I can't believe we made it out of there." Nick said, more to himself than the others. But Coach nodded.

"That was good teamwork, kids." He said, attempting to wrap a bandage around his forearm, which had been badly burned by acid. He gave up, letting Rochelle take over.

"We're kickin' ass!" Ellis said excitedly. Nick snorted. "Aw, come on, Nick, it's true. Ain't no way we'd've survived if we weren't together."

"I guess."

Ellis grinned at him. "You're startin' to like uuus…"

"Ellis, I will shoot you."

The kid just laughed, which probably would've pissed Nick off more, even a day ago, but instead he just resignedly shook his head. They had to keep moving.

In the elevator of the atrium, Ellis spied the racecar.

"I got an idea, y'all."

An idea that devolved into blood and screaming, but an idea nonetheless.

They'd just got the last can of gas into the car, when a damn Tank showed up and downed Rochelle. Coach and Ellis were already almost to the car.

"JUST GET IT STARTED!" Nick screamed at them. He was the closest to Rochelle, and so he ran back, pulling her to her feet.

"Car's ready, let's go!" He told her, practically dragging her to back to it. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, motherfucker, SHIT!" The Tank was literally right behind them.

He shoved Rochelle inside the car, and dove in after her, and Ellis floored it the hell out of there.

"THAT'S A WINDOW!" Nick yelled, terrified, to which Ellis yelled back, accompanied by a whoop and crazed laughter,

"I FUCKIN' KNOW!" and a second later, all four of them screaming their heads off (Ellis in delight, the others in sheer, piss-your-pants fear), they smashed through said window, wheels airborne for what felt like a good five seconds, before touching down and fishtailing down the street.

"Am I alive?" Rochelle asked weakly, after a minute. "Oh, my God, is it possible I'm still alive?"

"Not sure." Nick responded, eyes closed. "Tell you when I know myself."

Coach is the first to recover, after Ellis. "We made it, motherfuckers!"

"Hell yeah, we did!" Ellis said, and Nick could hear the grin in his voice.

Someone touched his hand, and he turned to see Rochelle. She was smiling at him, albeit a little smugly.

"Thanks." She nodded.

"Uh… yeah." He shrugged. "Don't mention it."

"Hey, Nick!" Ellis called back. "Looks like you'll be stickin' around 'til New Orleans, huh?"

"Looks like I am, Ellis."

God help him.

***